Seal



Get. 7 1924.

J. P. DUGAN ET AL SEAL Filed April 23, 1925 Patent @ct. 1924.

JOHN P. BUG-AN, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, AND CHARLES O. DUGAN, JR, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOCRS TO THE DUGAN SEAL COMPANY, OF BALTIMORE, MABYLAND,'A CORPORATION OF MARYLAND.

SEAL.

Application filed April 23, 1923. Serial No. 634,192.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN P. Down, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of Baltimore, State of Maryland, and 1, CHARLES O. DUGAN, Jr., a

citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seals, of which the following 1s a specification.

The seal which is the subject of this invention may be applied to baggage, shipping tags, express packages and tags, freight packages, freight car doors, packages of valuables, and other packages, safes and the like. In fact, it may be used in an connection as-indicating means to show w ether any closure has been tampered with.

The device consists of a plurality of discs which are centrally apertured and secured together with the apertures in registration. One of the discs is recessed asto the face, which contacts the other disc, the recess being diametrically placed, in that it crosses the center, and being relatively deep near the center and shallow at the ends.

Situated in the recess which is closed by the other disc or two thin, steel plates, in the nature of plate springs. These plates meet or almost meet in the center where they are free and are secured to the discs at their outer ends, preferably by the securin means which holds the discs together. piece of relatively soft wire is secured at one end between the discs, the other end being free.

. This wire is preferably somewhere from 6" to 10" long.

To close the seal, the free end is passed through or about the parts to be sealed and in the rear or unrecesse-d disc and between the adjacent ends of the plates, forcing them apart and backward to the bottom of the recess, till suflicient opening is formed to pass the end of the wire. In this position the end of the wire referred to as the free end is fastened and cannot be removed without breaking the wire or making it clearly apparent that the seal has been tampered with, for the ends of the plates which are preferably sharpened bite into the wire and prevent its withdrawal in the direction from which it was inserted, having, under these then is thrust through the central opening circumstances, a toggle action, tending to hold the wire more tightly the greater the tension applied, so that with an excessive pull the wire is cut off or broken instead of being released from the plates. It will be apparent that the wire or flexible binding member, being of uniform cross-section, as shown, may be locked at any point in its length, making the loopthus formed capable of being taken u i or drawn up to meet any conditions whic may be presented, making the seal capable of universal application to baggage freight car doors and other doors.

If desired, the end of the wire may be hardened to make breakage thereof more certain when there is tampering with the seal. Under such circumstances, detection is, of course, easy on account of the variation in length of the wire, the condition of the end and the loss of the part which was thus hardened.

Preferably, we provide prongs of tin or similar material for securing the seal to a tag or check, with the center opening of the seal or disc in registration with the eye of the check or tag. A portion of the check may, to advantage, be allotted to the seal to be left on the seal until the package reaches the owner, the check having other portions separated by perforated lines for use of the baggage department of the-railroad, one, in accordance with the usual practice, being the passengers duplicate.

In the accompanying drawing We have illustrated a seal constructed in accordance with our invention in the preferred form.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the seal applied to a check, the side referred to as the front side being the side from which the end of the wire is inserted in seal.

Fig. 2 is an elevation taken from the right of the seal as seen in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 looking from the right.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 5-5, F 1g. 3 looking to the right, showing the right hand disc and the gripping plates.

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3, looking to the left in that figure, showing the pronged member and theflat disc in 'side elevation, the rivets or pins which hold the disc 'or plate springs being in section. I I

. Referring to the drawings by numerals: The seal, as shown, cpnsists of two discs, 1 and 2, which'may' be of leather, fibre or any suitable substitute, as metal or wood.

registration, when the discs are secuyed to-' gether with their edges in alignment, and

preferably centrally located. For further convenience, the disc, 1, will be referred to as the front disc, and the disc, 2, as the rear disc. The rear disc is recessed at 5, the recess extending across the disc so that the hole, 4, is centrally placed as .to said recess. In other words the recess, 5, in the form of theinv ention shown, is a channel or groove extending-diametrically across the disc on the'face thereof, and is deeper at the center than at the ends adjacent the periphery of the disc. This recess, 5, which is covered by the front disc, contains the locking plates, 6. These are ,two in number, each being in length equal to about one-half thelength of the recess, 5, which, in this instance, means that they are equal inlength to one-half the diameter of the disc's. These plates, 6, which may, to advantage, be of plate spring material, are seated in the recess, 5, which is preferablyjust wide enough to receive them and" are secured at their outer ends to the discs or between the discs, and are free at their inner ends, 7, which substantially meet and which are preferably sharpened to enage the wire or other flexible binding memer, 8, to be described. In the present in stance, the discs are held by pins or rivets,

10, by means of which the discs are secured together, as aforesaid, the disc, 1, covering plates, 6, are seated, the disc, 1, serving to -close the recess and cover the plates, prethe recessed face of the disc, 2, in which the venting displacement thereof and protecting them so that they can not be'tampered'without making evident the fact that this has been done.

The wire, 8, referred to, is shown as secured at one end, 12, between the discs, the

Y securing means in the form of the invention shown, including a circular depression, 13, in the inner face of the rear disc, 2, in the fiat face thereof at one side of the recess, 5. The end, 12, of the wire, is bent in the. form of a loop which is situated in said depres- T sion and there is a channel, 14, in the face of the disc, leading from the depression, I

13, to the periphery of the disc. If desired, a pin, 15, may be passed through the loo ed end, 12, and through the discs, or any 0 er suitable means for permanently fastening one end of the wire, 8, to the seal body may be used. The wire, 8, is of any suitable length and is led from the depression through said channel.

As shown, it is 8" to 9" long, but this is immaterial, and the end portion, 16, which may bereferred toas the free end, i. e. the end opposite to the end, 12, which is per-. manently fastened to theseal, may, to advantage, be hardened to cause it to break in case of an attempt to pull out the locked end, giving clear evidence of such tampering.

The device, as shown, further includes means for fastening a tag or check to the seal, though this is not regarded as an essential feature of the invention' in its broader scope' As shown, this means. consists of a lurality of prongs of thin sheet metal w ich may, to advantage, be of what is known commercially as tin; The prongs are in the form of a cross, 17, centrally apertured at 18, to register with the apertures 3-4 in the disc. This cross, 17, is seated between the discs, preferably in the shallow crossed grooves, 19, in the back face of the front disc, 1. As shown, this cross is also held by the rivets, 10. I

In operation, the wire, 8, is passed through or around the members which are to be sealed together, the object of the seal, as

plates, 6, and then out through the opening 4, in the rear disk, 2.

It will be noted that the wire or fleiible b nding member 8 is of uniform cross-sect1on throughout and without shoulders or part1cular points of attachment, and that any art of the wire maybe fastened to the seal y drawing the wire through the seal and ad usting the s1ze of the loop, making it possible to adapt the seal to any situation or circumstance presented.

The wire is intended to be thrust for ward or inward so far that the edges, 7, will contact with the soft portion of the w re and not with the hardened end, 16. But hardening is not essential.

Any attempt to withdraw. .the end, 16, from the sea, i. e. to pull' it back, will wi ens causethe edges, 7, to bite into the surface of the wire, the plates having a toggle action in'relation thereto, which causes the edges, 7, to engage with the greater ressure, the greater the tendency to with raw the, wire, so that it cannot, in fact, be pulled out without. breaking or disrupting any of the parts.

r We have shown in Figure 1, in connection with the seal, a check, 20, consisting of a passengers duplicate, 21, and baggage check, 22, and a seal. stub, 23, the latter being secured to the seal and being intended to go to the recipient of the baggage to indicate to him that the baggage as not been opened since the seal was applied in the presence of the sender.

We have thus described specifically and in detail a single embodiment of our invention in order that the nature and op-. eration of the same may be clearly understood, however, the specific terms used. herein are used descriptively rather than in a limiting sense, the scope of the inventio being defined in the claims. J

What we claim and desir to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A seal consistin of a. pluralit of members secured toget er face to face orming a seal body, said members having registering holes and one of saidmembers having a recess which is intersected intermediately by said holes, plates seated in said recess having free, substantially contacting edges, substantially in line with said holes, a flexible metal binding member of uniform cross-section having one end rmanently secured to the seal, the other en bein adapted. to be passed through said holes, an between and in contact with the edges of said plates,

the plates being flexibly mounted to converge toward said edges, and having a toggle action and the ed es having a biting action on the wire, w en tension tending to withdraw it from the seal-is applied to the wire.

2. A seal consisting of a pluralit of members secured together face to face orming a seal body, said members havin substantially aligned holes and oneo said members having a recess which is intersected intermediately by said holes, plates in said recess having free, substantially con- Lacting edges, adjacent to said holes, portions of said plates remote from the contacting edges being flexibly connected to the seal bo a flexlble metal binding member of uni orm cross-section and without lateral projection having one end permanently secured to the seal body, the other end being adapted to be passed through said holes, and between and in contact with the edges, said edges having a biting action on the wire when tension tending to withdraw it from the holes is applied, to the wire and from the seal body.

3. A combination check and seal consisting of a card, a seal bod secured to said card, a metal wire of uni orm cross-section having one end secured to the seal body member, the other end of the wire being free, locking means comprising plates arranged toggle-wise, the remote ends secured to te body and the edges of said plates be ing substantially in contact, the body member havin a hole in alignment with said edges, so t at the free end of the wire can be thrust through said aperture and between said plates and locked at any point in its length by the to gle action forming a loop WhlCll can be re uced to the desired extent by drawing the wire through the seal 4. A combination check and seal consisting of a card, a seal body member secured to the card, a flexible metal binding member of uniform cross-section having. one end secured to the seal body member, the other end being free, locking means comprising converging members arranged toggle-wise with the remote ends connected to the body and adjacent edges substantially in contact, the body member having holes in alignment with said edges, so that the free end of the binding member can be thrust through said aperture and between said converging members and locked. at any point by the toggle action, the body member having a closed aperture for said converging members, providing play for said ed es.

5. A seal comprising a continuous exible metal binding member of substantiall uniform cross-section, a seal body to whic said member is permanently secured at one end, the seal body having walls enclosing a chamber, said chamber having substantially aligned openin s by way of which openings the free end 0 said binding member may be passed through the seal body forming a loop, and a hard metal jaw having a sharp gripping edge, the edge being normally between said openings, the jaw being inclined away from one of said openings and having a slight degree of play, and means opposite said jaw for preventing the flexible member from yielding away from the gripping'edge, the inclined jaw having a toggle action and serving to lock the binding'member automatically at an point in its length, permitting the slac him to be taken up by drawing the free end through the seal.

Signed by us at Baltimore, Maryland,

this 23rd day of April, 1923. 

